Felipe Scolari targets Fernando Torres, Kaka, and Franck Ribery for Chelsea revolution
Luiz Felipe Scolari has been presented with a list of targets by Chelsea that features Fernando Torres, Robinho and Franck Ribéry. The Brazilian, who will take over as manager at Stamford Bridge next month, will be given an unlimited transfer budget by Roman Abramovich, the club’s owner, and has proposed signing Kaká and Deco.
Chelsea, with a well-drilled defence and outstanding central midfield players such as Michael Ballack, Frank Lampard and Michael Essien, will focus on recruiting wide players and strikers this summer, a policy that fits with Abramovich’s desire for more attacking football — although he is aware that José Mourinho, the new Inter Milan coach, has made Lampard his No 1 target. Many of the stars on Chelsea’s horizon may prove beyond their reach as they play for rivals with no need to sell, but Abramovich is confident that the sheer weight of money will convince some of them to cash in.
Torres is a case in point, with Liverpool adamant that they will not sell a striker who scored 33 goals in his first season with the club, but Chelsea hope to exploit divisions between Anfield’s warring owners, George Gillett Jr and Tom Hicks. Chelsea have been told that one of the Americans is willing to let Torres go for the right price and are planning to test Liverpool’s resolve with a bid. Kaká falls into the same category because AC Milan have stated that the Brazil forward is not for sale at any price, but Chelsea are hoping to use Didier Drogba and Andriy Shevchenko as pawns to push the transfer through. Chelsea have rejected bids from Milan for both strikers and they hope that Scolari’s relationship with a player he took to his first World Cup finals at the age of 20, in 2002, will convince him to leave the San Siro.
Bayern Munich are similarly reluctant to sell Ribéry, but Robinho and Deco should be far easier to acquire from Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively. Scolari has wasted no time in assembling his backroom staff and is planning to bring two of his Portugal colleagues, Flávio Teixeira and Darlan Schneider, to Stamford Bridge.
Teixeira has worked as Scolari’s assistant since the Brazilian took his first job, at Centro Sportivo Alagoano, in 1982 and is regarded as his eyes and ears, while Schneider, the nephew of Scolari’s wife, Olga, was recruited as a fitness coach when he took the job as Portugal coach in 2003. Scolari has gone out of his way to praise his squad’s sharpness at Euro 2008, which he attributes to Schneider.
Chelsea hope that Steve Clarke will remain at the club as a second assistant, in a similar set-up to that under Mourinho, while they also want to retain Christophe Lollichon as goalkeeping coach.
Scolari’s appointment has been welcomed by Chelsea’s players, but not by Sir Alex Ferguson. The Manchester United manager has privately expressed anger that the Brazilian has been advising Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portugal forward, to leave Old Trafford for Real.
